Sikandar Raza is a globetrotter who has played in every big league around the world. Over the last year or so, plenty of players from lower-ranked nations have slowly been given an opportunity to play in franchise leagues. Raza, who is leading Joburg Bangla Tigers in the Zim-Afro T10 competition at home, believes that franchise cricket has helped improve the skillsets of players from lower-ranked sides.

“We don’t get a lot of chances to play against some of those higher-ranked nations as much. So our development, our growth, is pretty much within ourselves,” Raza told Reuters. 

“But because of these leagues, the confidence level, the learning we get when we play abroad in overseas leagues is sometimes a lot more than what we do on the park.

“The overseas cricketers, the legends of the game that we get to spend time with and to learn from and to ask them questions and try and get a better understanding of the game.

“I do think franchise cricket has brought international cricket a lot closer. The skill level of the lower-ranked nations is a lot better because of franchise cricket.”

Raza, Zimbabwe’s T20 International (T20I) captain, believes that his side have some very good players and can show the world how good they are, despite having very few active cricketers in the country.

“In a population of around 14 million people, there are hardly 2 000 actively playing cricketers,” he said.

“But I still believe with the little pool of players we have, we have shown the world some very good glimpses of how good Zimbabwe can be on their day.”

While Raza travels the world for T20 leagues, he still desires to play Test cricket. He has hailed the England & Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) decision to pay the Zimbabwean side touring fees to cover their one-off Test tour to England next year.

“Thanks to ECB for taking that step forward because if the top nations can do that, then that would allow Zimbabwe to play a lot more test matches. I do find that the real growth of a cricketer happens through test cricket,” Raza said.

“Hosting a test match is very costly and Zimbabwe cricket could make a huge loss. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to host six to eight matches in a year.

“India have been a very good friend to Zimbabwe, they have hosted us pretty much every second year. So if the top nations can do that, it will be beneficial for Zimbabwe.”

Raza-led Joburg Bangla Tigers are currently third on the points table in the six-team Zim Afro T10, having picked up eight points from six matches so far.

If you’ve not downloaded the Cricket.com app yet, you’re missing out on our content — big time. Download the App here.